“I don’t have a bad word to say about Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, they just haven’t inspired me,” he told CNN on Sunday. "I don’t dislike Hillary, I don’t dislike Bernie Sanders. I don’t dislike them. I want to be inspired.”

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Barkley said that he has enthusiastically voted for past Democratic presidential candidates.

“You know, President Obama inspired me, former President [Bill] Clinton inspired me. I was like, ‘Yeah, I really want to go vote.’”

The retired basketball star said that he is disappointed in this presidential election cycle so far, however.

“I feel bad for the American people,” Barkley said. "It’s the greatest country in the world, but what politics in America has become about is rich people screwing poor people. I feel sadness more than anything about how they’re dividing us up.

“We have made this thing about rich against poor, black against white, white against Hispanic, and that’s just not the way the greatest country in the world should operate. It has not enhanced the process.”

Barkley, who now provides basketball analysis for TNT, added that he remains interested in John Kasich because of the GOP presidential candidate’s economic platform.

“I do like John Kasich. He is one of the few Republicans that talk about economic opportunity. Everybody wants to talk about Republican, Democrat, black, white [but] it’s really about giving poor people economic opportunity."